New prison program aims to rehabilitate Colorado convicts

But that is a far cry from the label he received just 15 years ago in Mesa County: convicted killer.

On Tuesday, Lee, 40, was the featured speaker at a news conference in the State Capitol about a new online program sponsored by CollegeInColorado.org called "Own Your Future." It offers convicts like him an opportunity to turn their lives around.

"There are those of us who really want to change," Lee said. "Change isn't easy. ... For so long you've been a certain thing. ... You've got to have a lot of help."

The free service walks parolees through the often intimidating process of writing a resume, applying for college or seeking a job. It also includes easy step tutorials on how to get housing, transportation or career training.

The program, supported by a federal grant, is an attempt to reduce Colorado's recidivism rate, which at 52 percent, is the third highest in the nation, said Lt. Gov. Joseph Garcia.

Every month, 900 inmates are released from Colorado prisons and ultimately 94 percent of all offenders will some day be released from prison to the streets, Garcia said.

Own Your Future is an attempt to make it easier for parolees to navigate in free society, often with almost no work experience beyond prison work programs.

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"It will give them some tools that will help them obtain a career," Garcia said.

The program is dedicated to the memory of murdered former prisons chief Tom Clements, who believed that people could change their lives if given the proper support. His widow, Lisa, attended the news conference.

Lee said he was a violent drug addict when he was convicted of second-degree murder. He fatally shot 35-year-old Merrill Thomas Ashcraft on Feb. 19, 1997 at his Clifton home and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Lee learned how to weld in a prison vocational program and was released into a residential drug treatment program called Peer 1 in 2010. There had been a lot of changes in society since he was arrested in 1997 and he required a lot of help.

"Finding a way to navigate through this mythological Internet was very scary," Lee said.

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